What Is Mom's Work Worth?

Just in time for Mother's Day, Salary.com has done some research and put a dollar figure on the work that mothers do at home—$122,732, MSNBC.com reports. This year, a stay-at-home mom performing the 10 most popular "mom-job functions" does the work equivalent to a $122,732 salary, up 5 percent over last year's calculations. A mom who works outside the home 40 hours per week does tasks that translates to an annual cash compensation of $76,184, an 11 percent increase.

According to the survey, the working mom had 17 hours of overtime in addition to her full-time hours both at work and as a mom; the stay-at-home mom worked 56 hours of OT, bringing her workweek to 96 hours. That's a lot of unpaid work.

And how did the experts arrive at these figures? They took 10 jobs that closely match the multiple jobs that moms do at home (think laundry machine operator, cook, housekeeper, psychologist, chief executive officer, etc.). Then they surveyed 12,150 moms to measure their hours worked in each role for a typical week.

Remember, there's no easy answer when it comes to staying home or going back to work. It's a personal decision and you have to do what's best for your family. Here's an online pros vs. cons list for you to enjoy via LilSugar: 10 reasons one woman loves being a working mom and 10 more on why she feels guilty about it.

Thinking about staying home? If so, here's how you might make it on one income. If you are on the fence about getting back in the game, maybe there's a comfortable compromise out there for you. Take a look at this list of pregnancy-inspired careers and see if they inspire you to make a switch.

But it's not all doom and gloom—this funny video puts a light-hearted spin on the hard work that moms do on a daily basis. Happy Mother's Day!